1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems, processes, methodologies, apparatus and related software to provide graphical user interfaces for use with communications hardware. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of graphical user interfaces that facilitate monitoring and configuration of content stream routing through transport multiplexers. Accordingly, the general objects of the invention are to provide novel systems, methods, apparatus and software of such character.
2. Description of the Related Art
Broadband media convergence between video, audio and data creates a chaotic environment of different standards and legacy communications technologies. The relationship between physical and logical resources in such systems needs to be manipulated and communicated between broadband hardware, its control system and the operator. Conventionally, this is accomplished with the use of dedicated control computers for each piece of communications hardware associated with the task of routing multimedia content. Therefore, modem communications hardware personnel, such as cable operators and television programmers, use great numbers of diverse equipment, each of which is managed by a separate control system hosted on a separate computer. Conventional communications systems of this nature also typically require the use of hyper-technical operator interfaces in order to configure conventional broadband equipment. For these and other reasons, most of such systems are nearly intolerably difficult to utilize, counter-intuitive, cryptic, inefficient and expensive to purchase and operate.
Another problem with conventional broadband communications hardware is its inability to conveniently provide operators with information regarding the system hardware and software. This creates many inefficiencies in operation of such equipment. As but one example, troubleshooting system errors is currently a difficult and expensive process because system operators must physically inspect the broadband communications hardware in order to determine the system hardware utilized and its operational status. In particular, troubleshooting system difficulties may entail operator inspections of a communications hardware rack to determine if all of the communications hardware has been plugged-in, turned on, connected to a source of content stream and/or operating in a particular way.
In addition to the difficulties associated with determining hardware configuration and status, conventional broadband communications hardware makes it difficult to determine current content stream routing configurations. This is, in part, due to the fact that current broadband communications hardware is not sophisticated enough to indicate various attributes of incoming data streams. Additionally, current user interfaces for conventional broadband communications hardware require highly skilled personnel to configure routing control for various programs. The difficulties associated with conventional methods of routing control make it extremely difficult to efficiently utilize system bandwidth. Therefore, operators of conventional systems of this nature often underutilize the bandwidth available to perform content stream routing. Given that transport bandwidth is still a precious commodity in this field, this is a significant deficiency.
A further deficiency associated with conventional broadband communications hardware is that such hardware must be manually configured. Thus, current systems typically require operators to be skilled in the use of a cryptic and sophisticated computer code in order to operate conventional broadband communications hardware. As the demand for information/content options continues to increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to manually configure broadband communications hardware to route content streams. Moreover, such systems must be continually operated and appropriately configured each time a content stream routing change is to be executed.
There is, accordingly, a need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that provide a simple and real-time display of content stream routing through a transport multiplexer. Such methods and apparatus should include an intuitive graphical user interface that supplies the operator with status information regarding associated system hardware and software. Such methods and apparatus should also include a feature-rich graphical user interface that enables an operator to easily monitor and manipulate content streams flowing through a transport multiplexer.
There is, accordingly, an additional need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that permit configuration of content stream routing of plural stream components simultaneously. Such methods and apparatus should be flexible enough to permit operators to configure routing control of individual content stream components as well as groups of such components (e.g., programs, components, etc.) simultaneously.
There is, a further need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that permit configuration of routing control of future routing events in a broadband multiplexer. Such methods and apparatus should also permit operators to configure transport multiplexers to automatically change routing configurations at a future point in time, even in the absence of the operator. Such a system would permit automated control of broadband media hardware by predetermining routing configuration information for extended time periods and enable the automatic execution of configuration changes.
There is still another need in the art for transport multiplexer graphical user interfaces that have the ability to display intuitive and consistent mnemonic identifiers for the various content streams that are displayed on various screens throughout the graphical user interface.
There is, accordingly, a further need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that provides both manual and computer assisted configuration of content stream routing control through transport multiplexers. Such methods and apparatus would also preferably include a graphical user interface that permits the operator to configure routing control through simple manipulation of graphical objects such as icons.
There is, yet another need in the art for novel methods, systems and apparatus that provide real-time display of hardware identity/configuration and/or status data in a broadband multiplexer. Such methods and apparatus should enable system operators to identify the physical structure and configuration of communications hardware from a single graphical user interface, and thereby avoid the necessity of physically inspecting the communications hardware. Such methods and apparatus should also be capable of reflecting the current status of the communications hardware so that an operator may verify whether or not the various equipment is operating as expected.